


i want to stay with you (you make me breathe)

by moon__goddess



Category: Golden Child (Korea Band)
Genre: M/M, Volleyball AU, WOOOOO WAJOO VOLLEYBALL AU LETS GOOOOOOO, literally the breathe mv but more gay., so gay., sungyoon is a perfectionist idiot its fine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-27 22:47:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30130038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moon__goddess/pseuds/moon__goddess
Summary: Jangjun somehow convinces Sungyoon to join their university's intramural volleyball team.Or: A super extra gay retelling of the Breathe MV.
Relationships: Choi Sungyoon | Y/Hong Joochan
Comments: 8
Kudos: 44





	i want to stay with you (you make me breathe)

**Author's Note:**

> a short glossary of volleyball terms for your ease of reading (although you really don't need to know volleyball to understand what happens!)
> 
>  _bump:_ a type of hit using your forearms  
>  _set:_ a type of hit using your hands, usually overhead; also what one game is called  
>  _serve:_ starts the set; a player serves from the back of the court  
>  _front row:_ the front section of the court. players here are usually offense-heavy  
>  _back row:_ the back section of the court. players here are usually defense-heavy  
>  _libero:_ a strong defensive player who can take any position in the back row as needed  
>  _substitution:_ a player switching out with another player. a team is allowed up to six substitutions in one game  
>  _spike:_ a type of offensive hit done by a front row player that is very hard to defend against

Sungyoon watches as Seungmin dives for the ball and winces when he  _ just _ misses it.

The score is now 13-14. They’re  _ barely _ in the lead.

Jaehyun signals something to Daeyeol, who runs a hand through his hair before calling for substitutions.

Sungyoon gets up from the bench, slaps Youngtaek’s hand as they exchange positions, and settles into his playing stance in the front row, glaring at the TBZ player directly across the net from him.

He’s ready.

The referee blows her whistle. Bomin serves.

*******************************************************************************

“Come on, hyung,” Jangjun says, grinning at him from across the table. “It’ll be fun.”

“Your definition of fun is vastly different from mine,” Sungyoon grumbles. 

“Weren’t you  _ just  _ telling me the other day you missed sports?”

“I meant soccer.” Sungyoon shoots him a look over his coffee. “And track. Not… volleyball.”

Jangjun pouts. “Please, hyung?” he asks. “We really need one more person, and I bet you’ll pick this up super quickly.” He bats his eyelashes, making Sungyoon roll his eyes. “And you’re already such a good athlete, you can only add to the team. Plus you know like half of us already!”

“Oh?” Sungyoon raises an eyebrow. 

Jangjun nods excitedly. “Yeah! You know me and Taekie, and I swear Seungmin and Donghyun have both said they’ve had class with you before, and you know Lee Daeyeol, right? He’s the captain.”

He gets an idea, and then frowns before pulling out his phone, scrolling until he sees Daeyeol’s name in his contacts. “That’s not exactly a good point, Jangjun.”

“Why?” Jangjun leans forward, his coffee forgotten.

“I-” Sungyoon sighs as he taps out a text. “I’m… not exactly friends with Lee Daeyeol.”

“I see.” Jangjun’s brow furrows for a second before he waves it off. “I’m sure it’ll be fine. Daeyeol-hyung is a great captain, and he’s the one who’s been bugging us to find someone else for the team. Plus I think that once you get to know him you’ll like him a lot!”

Sungyoon sighs again. “You’re not going to let this go until I say yes.”

It’s not a question, but Jangjun shakes his head anyway.

“Fine,” he groans. “I’ll join your team.”

“Yes!!!” Jangjun yells, pumping his fists and barely avoiding knocking over his coffee cup.

Sungyoon hides his smile.

Jangjun texts him the practice times along with a very long-winded explanation of the rules, and he shows up to the university gym the next night, slightly nervous but also strangely excited. He hadn’t been lying when he told Jangjun that he missed sports, because he does. He misses the burst of adrenaline he gets from running, he misses the casual camaraderie of a team, he misses practices and games and meets and the euphoria of success and the rush of determination to get even better than before.

He takes a deep breath and walks into the gym, only to stop in his tracks when he sees a familiar face laughing with Jangjun by one of the benches.

“Joochannie?”

Both of them look over at him, and then Hong Joochan’s face breaks into the brightest smile Sungyoon’s ever seen.

“Sungyoon-hyung!” Joochan bounds over to him and grins. “Jangjun-hyung didn’t say the person he found was you!”

“Yes I did, you just weren’t listening to me,” Jangjun complains, but when Sungyoon drags his eyes away from Joochan’s face he sees Jangjun’s grin. “I didn’t realize you two knew each other,” he adds.

“We were in a project group together last semester,” Joochan says, shooting Sungyoon another smile. “Spent hours in the library together.”

“Yeah.” Sungyoon rubs the back of his neck, feeling overly warm. “It was fun.”

Joochan glows at his words. “This is going to be so great, hyung,” he says.

Jangjun latches onto Sungyoon’s wrist. “Come on, let’s go meet everyone.”

Sungyoon doesn’t get a chance to respond before Jangjun tugs him along. It’s a blur of names and faces, but he recognizes Bae Seungmin from a previous class, as well as Kim Donghyun, and grins at Youngtaek when Jangjun skips over him because “you two already know each other, all because of me.”

Jangjun finally stops in front of another familiar face, this one already frowning. Sungyoon gulps.

“Daeyeollie-hyung, this is Sungyoon-hyung,” Jangjun says.

“We’ve met,” Lee Daeyeol says stiffly.

Sungyoon grimaces. “Hello, Daeyeol,” he says.

Jangjun glances between them worriedly.

Sungyoon holds Daeyeol’s gaze for another few seconds, noting how tense Jangjun is getting beside him, before Daeyeol collapses into laughter, breaking the moment.

“Ah, we had you so scared,” he says through his chuckles, motioning towards Jangjun.

Sungyoon can’t help but start laughing as well. “Sorry, Jangjunnie,” he says, giggling. “I had to.”

Jangjun looks between the two of them, his mouth open. “W-w-what?” he sputters, his face fluctuating between surprise and outrage.

Sungyoon laughs harder. “You should see the look on your face,” he gasps, clutching his stomach.

Daeyeol glances at him and then doubles over, laughing so hard he sinks to his knees. “Jangjun-” he starts, but his giggles overtake him and he can’t finish.

Jangjun glances between them again. “Did… did you two plan this?” he asks.

Daeyeol nods, now silently shaking with amusement.

Sungyoon grins.

Jangjun crosses his arms and scoffs. “I hate you both,” he says. “So much.”

“No he doesn’t,” Youngtaek says from behind him, also chortling with laughter.

“Shut up.”

Sungyoon gets himself under control and smiles at the two of them. “This is payback, Jangjunnie,” he says. “Now we’re even.”

“Ugh, fine,” Jangjun replies. “I already regret this.”

He flounces away, Youngtaek giggling behind him, and Sungyoon smiles and slaps Daeyeol’s palm.

“Glad he convinced you to join,” Daeyeol says, grinning at him. 

“Please,” Sungyoon replies. “You know how he gets.”

“I do indeed.” Daeyeol grabs a ball from the cart behind him. “You haven’t played before, right?”

Sungyoon shakes his head. “Nah. Just soccer. And I ran track for a while too.”

“Got it.” Daeyeol tosses him the ball, and he manages to fight his soccer instincts and catch it. “You’ll pick it up in no time.”

Sungyoon only sort of does.

He gets how to serve, and he understands the mechanics of setting and bumping, and Joochan only has to explain the positions to him twice before he understands that, too, and starts coming up with strategies for team plays. 

What he doesn’t get, and what makes him more and more frustrated after each practice, is the offensive spiking play that one of the younger players, Bong Jaehyun, had proposed.

Daeyeol had tried him out in both the front row and back row in different practices before giving him a front row spot based on his speed and instincts. He prides himself on that, because he  _ knows _ he’s fast, he  _ knows _ he’s good at tracking the ball, he  _ knows _ he can make the plays the team needs.

What he doesn’t know is how he can spike the stupid ball.

They lose their first intramural game to ATZ.

Daeyeol treats them all to meat after the game and gives a reasonably coherent speech (considering how much soju he drank) about getting up and trying again and how the start doesn’t define them, the journey does. Sungyoon spends most of the meal glaring into his rice, replaying the moment when he’d hit the ball and his hand had smacked the top of the net as well, making the referee call a fault and giving the other team the lead. 

He only smiles when Joochan, sitting next to him, makes a dumb joke at Bomin’s expense, which causes the youngest member of the team to blush horribly red and the rest of the table to burst into laughter. (Jibeom is especially loud, he and Donghyun braying like donkeys, and Jaehyun tries to shush them with very little success.)

Joochan catches up to him when they finally leave, cheeks flushed from the soju and eyes bright. “Hyung,” he says, making Sungyoon glance at him. “It wasn’t your fault.”

Sungyoon’s eyebrows shoot up before he drops his head and looks at the ground. “It was,” he mumbles, simultaneously surprised and not surprised at all that Joochan knew what was bothering him. It had been like that during their project too. Joochan had always known when he was in a mood, had always tried to lighten the atmosphere with his bright smile and a joke, and Sungyoon had always felt better afterward.

Joochan bumps him with his hip. “It wasn’t,” he insists. “We all made a ton of mistakes. Plus they were, like,  _ really _ good.” He smiles. “Better than Daeyeol-hyung expected them to be, I think.”

Sungyoon grunts in response.

“Especially for intramural,” Joochan continues. “Like, this is just supposed to be for fun, no stakes, but they were so intense.”

“Mmm.” Sungyoon shoves his hands in his pockets, already thinking of ways to improve his play.

“Hyung.” Joochan stops walking, and Sungyoon is forced to stop beside him. “Stop overanalyzing,” he says.

Sungyoon opens his mouth to protest but Joochan gives him a look. “Don’t deny it,” he adds. “I know how your brain works, remember?”

“I didn’t even say anything.”

“You don’t have to, hyung.” Joochan smiles gently, and Sungyoon is struck by the way the moonlight hits his profile. “Just… don’t beat yourself up over it. Or at least try not to.”

Sungyoon scoffs lightly. “I’ll try, Joochannie,” he says, and before he can stop himself he reaches over and ruffles Joochan’s hair. “Thanks.”

“Yah, don’t mess up my hair!” Joochan shrieks, and that actually gets Sungyoon to laugh.

It becomes a kind of pattern. Sungyoon chats with Joochan during practice, laughs at Jangjun and Jibeom’s antics with him, talks to him after games and during breaks and finds himself wanting to spend time with him outside of volleyball, outside of this one thing that connects them, now that they don’t have any classes together.

He feels himself falling into Joochan’s orbit even faster than he’d thought possible.

This was why he had tried to keep himself relatively distant during their project. Joochan was just so bright, so warm, so intelligent. 

He’d known even back then that Hong Joochan was a danger to his heart.

They win some games. They lose more.

Sungyoon still can’t get that damn spike.

It frustrates him. Every time he misses it at practice he can sense the looks from his teammates. The pity, the disappointment, especially from Daeyeol, which stings more than he thought it would. And if there’s one thing he hates more than anything, it’s being a disappointment. Especially to his friends.

Surprisingly, despite their losses, they have enough points in their intramural league to make it to the tournament. The team gets the notice four weeks before the date, to give them enough time to prepare.

Daeyeol waves the letter around at practice that night, and just the  _ thought _ of the tournament is so much pressure Sungyoon feels slightly ill. He  _ needs _ to get this spike down. If he doesn’t, they won’t do well. They won’t even have a chance at winning.

They start practice, and Sungyoon is focused. He’s ready.

They split into halves and run a practice game.

He’s next to Daeyeol in the front row, Donghyun and Jibeom on the other side of the net. Joochan is behind him, next to Youngtaek and Bomin in the back row, while Seungmin, Jangjun, and Jaehyun are in the back on the other side.

Youngtaek serves, and Jangjun receives, hitting the ball over to Jaehyun, who smacks it hard enough that it flies over Donghyun and Jibeom’s heads and heads straight for him.

Sungyoon sees his opportunity. He knows he can make it this time.

He runs for it, his focus solely on the ball, and as he jumps to try and spike it he crashes into Daeyeol.

The impact sends him flying across the floor, the ball bouncing away, but no one makes any move to get it. Everyone’s eyes are fixed on him.

He’s not only frustrated now, he’s pissed.

A hand appears above him.

It’s Daeyeol’s, and his face is set.

Sungyoon feels the dissatisfaction rolling off him in waves.

He scoffs, brushes Daeyeol’s hand away, and gets up, rolling his shoulder to try and lessen the pain from the collision.

They keep playing.

There’s a tension blanketing the gym, and Sungyoon feels its weight. He tries the spike again and again, missing the ball or hitting the net or just otherwise failing every. Single. Time.

His vision is starting to go red at the edges.

  
Daeyeol finally calls for a break, bitterness lacing his voice.

Joochan squeezes Sungyoon’s shoulder as he passes, the gesture probably meant to be comforting, but he barely registers it. He’s too busy staring at the hardwood floor, his thoughts going a mile a minute.

He remembers the bitterness, the disappointment, the pity he’d seen from all of his teammates, people he’d considered his friends, and something in Sungyoon’s brain snaps.

He turns and walks over to the bench where he’d thrown his bag at the start of practice.

“I’m done,” he says, breaking the silence, and peels off his team wristband, throwing it down on the bench with an air of finality.

No one says anything.

He blows out a breath and grabs his bag, swinging it onto his shoulder and turning to go, when a warm hand catches his wrist.

“Hyung.” 

He turns and meets Joochan’s gaze.

The pleading he sees there makes a lump rise in his throat, rendering him speechless. He shakes his head, unable to say anything else, before pulling his arm out of Joochan’s grasp and walking away.

Or he tries to, but is stopped by Daeyeol stepping in front of him.

But his mind is made up, so before his friend says anything else, he shoulders past him, intentionally rough, and walks out of the gym.

Sungyoon drops his things at his apartment and changes out of his team practice jersey, balling it up and throwing it at his bed, feeling a wave of anger and inadequacy rise like bile in his throat.

He needs to do something, needs to wear himself down, so he throws a grey running jacket on over his black long sleeve and heads back out.

The sun is still up, but it’s setting, and he jogs aimlessly, without a destination in mind, letting the fading sunlight warm his skin.

Before he knows it, he’s at his old soccer field, and it’s empty.

He steps onto the grass, memories rushing through him, and then he sighs and rests his head against one of the goals.

He’s so tired of being a disappointment. Of not being good enough.

He glances around once more, making sure he’s alone, before he takes off running down the field, pouring all of his anger and insecurity and fear into the pounding of his feet, letting the repetitive motion take over his mind.

But he can’t forget that moment from earlier. That moment where he’d failed.

He screams into the sunset, the sky slowly darkening like a reflection of his mood. He screams as he runs, letting the air drain his emotions, letting them flow out of him until he has nothing left.

He reaches the other side of the field and stops, feeling like he’d just ran a marathon.

His mind is clearer now, and he sees what he needs to do, if only to satisfy his own perfectionism.

He heads back to the gym.

The lights are off, the doors locked. Practice had ended a while ago.

He swipes his student ID and lets himself inside, pulling out their practice cart from the storage room and heading towards the court.

The net is still set up because the women’s team has practice in the morning, so he pulls out a ball and tosses it a few times before he steps into the front row, into his position, and tries the spike again.

And again.

And again.

He can’t fucking do it.

After what feels like a million tries, he gives up.

He collapses onto the floor and pulls his knees to his chest, burying his head in his arms and refusing to give into the burning behind his eyes.

The most recent ball he’d pulled from the cart rolls to a stop, bumping into his leg, and he kicks it away, not wanting to look at yet another reminder of his failure.

He hears it bounce and roll across the floor, and then it stops.

The squeak of sneakers makes his head fly up.

Joochan straightens up, holding the ball, and gives him a small smile.

“Hey, hyung,” he says, and Sungyoon just stares.

He ducks under the net and walks over to Sungyoon’s side before sitting on the floor next to him.

Sungyoon keeps staring at him before he realizes what he’s doing and drops his gaze to the floor.

Joochan doesn’t say anything else, just spins the ball he’s holding between his hands. The motion catches Sungyoon’s eye and he can’t help but  _ notice _ . Joochan’s hands. His long, beautiful fingers. The strength in his forearms.

He thinks about the way Joochan’s hand had wrapped around his wrist earlier.

Then he realizes what he’s doing,  _ again _ , and drops his gaze to the floor. Again.

The silence between them stretches, but Sungyoon doesn’t want to say anything, doesn’t want to fracture the moment. He can feel the warmth of Joochan’s body along his side, and he finally admits to himself that he doesn’t want Joochan to leave. That Joochan showing up was like the universe had peered into the hidden corners of his heart and then granted his most secret wish.

He doesn’t know how long they sit there, but Joochan finally sighs, breaking the silence. “Hyung,” he says quietly.

Sungyoon glances at him.

“You don’t have to do this alone, hyung.” Joochan digs in his pocket for a second and then holds something out to him.

It’s his team wristband.

The lump in Sungyoon’s throat returns. 

He looks at his wristband and then at Joochan.

“After you left,” Joochan says, his voice soft, “everyone started arguing. We were mad at Daeyeol-hyung for letting you leave, at each other for making you feel bad, at… everything, I guess.” He swallows. “We were mad at you, too, for just… giving up. Not letting us in. Not letting us try to help.”

His voice shakes a little, and Sungyoon hears what he’s not saying. The unspoken ‘I’.

“We were mad at each other for not doing more to have you stay,” Joochan continues, and again, Sungyoon  _ knows _ that it’s not just the team. Joochan was - is - mad at himself.

“Practice fell apart after that,” he adds, looking at the floor. “Not having you there was… it was hard. Like we weren’t - weren’t complete.”

He meets Sungyoon’s gaze. “Come back to us, hyung. Don’t quit on us now.”

Sungyoon swallows, reaches out, and takes his wristband.

He turns it over in his hand for a second, examining the team embroidery, the tag where he’d scrawled his initials in Sharpie, and feels himself slowly start to smile.

He glances at Joochan, who’s watching him intently, and when Joochan sees his grin he grins in return and punches him in the arm.

“I can’t believe you,” he says, starting to giggle, and Sungyoon finally, finally laughs, a weight lifted from his chest.

He throws his wristband at Joochan. “I’m not the one who came in here making a dramatic as fuck speech, Joochannie,” he retorts, chuckling as Joochan grabs it.

“I’m not the one who made a dramatic as fuck exit,” Joochan says, grinning. He takes Sungyoon’s hand and pulls the wristband over his fingers, settling it onto his wrist and making Sungyoon’s heart skip a beat.

“There,” he says, smiling with satisfaction. “You better not take it off again.”

Sungyoon raises his arm to eye level, examining the wristband. He inhales, meaning to say something snarky in response, but the light scent of Joochan’s cologne floats into his nose from a source closer than Joochan himself and wipes his thoughts from his mind. 

He sniffs his wristband.

Lemon and bergamot. Joochan.

“Did you just  _ smell _ that?” Joochan asks incredulously.

Sungyoon feels himself flush.

“Had to make sure it was mine, you know?” he jokes.

“That’s gross, hyung,” Joochan says, his face scrunched up in disgust, and Sungyoon laughs, shoving him lightly.

“Don’t judge me, Joochannie,” he replies, and Joochan shoves him back, beginning to laugh as well.

“I can and I will,” he says.

They grin at each other for a moment before Sungyoon realizes how close they’re sitting. 

He could easily just-

He and Joochan look at each other, their smiles starting to fade. Something settles into his stomach, something kind of like nerves but also like certainty.

He glances at Joochan’s lips for a split second before meeting his gaze again.

Joochan’s eyes are dark, darker than Sungyoon’s ever seen them.

“Sungyoon,” he whispers, dropping the honorific, and the sound of his name spoken so softly, so gently, spoken by  _ Joochan _ , has him leaning forward, eyes fluttering closed, until their lips t-

Someone’s sneakers squeak and they jump apart, the ghost of Joochan’s breath still fluttering over Sungyoon’s mouth.

He looks up and sees Daeyeol.

Both of them scramble to their feet, the moment forgotten.

Daeyeol ducks under the net and walks toward them, his expression stormy.

Joochan jumps in front of him. “Daeyeol-hyung,” he says. “Don’t-”

Daeyeol glares at him and Joochan steps back, expression cowed. Sungyoon clenches his fists. If Daeyeol doesn’t - well, it doesn’t matter, he thinks. It doesn’t matter what Daeyeol wants, because he’s coming back to the team and begging forgiveness from his teammates. His friends. And nothing will stop him from doing that.

Daeyeol shoots him a look and walks past him to the cart. He braces himself for the worst.

“Yah,” Daeyeol says, and as he turns Daeyeol throws a ball at him.

He catches it right before it hits his chest.

They stare at each other before Daeyeol smiles. “You really thought you could leave?” he asks.

Sungyoon exhales in relief and grins back at him. “Yah, you  _ asshole _ ,” he says, and then he throws the ball back at Daeyeol, all three of them bursting into laughter. Daeyeol swings one of his arms around Sungyoon’s shoulders and the other around Joochan’s, and Sungyoon feels the last of his doubts fly away.

At the next practice, they start their new training regimen, full of drills and skill practice sets and  _ fun _ . Sungyoon laughs more than he ever has, especially when Jibeom takes it upon himself to balance a ball on his nose like a seal, and then Jangjun tries the same thing and smacks himself in the face. They line up to take turns practicing the spike, so that they can all do it if need be during rotation, and Sungyoon is slightly mollified when he sees that even Bomin, who is the tallest despite being the youngest, struggles with it. 

He finally does it, the week after that, and the whole team cheers. And then he does it again. And again. And he  _ knows _ he’s got it down.

The only thread left hanging is Joochan.

Neither of them mention the night at the gym, the moment that passed between them. Sungyoon pushes it to the back of his mind and acts normal. As normal as he can, anyway. If his gaze lingers on Joochan after practice for a few seconds too long, if he laughs too hard at Joochan’s jokes, if he tenses every time Joochan takes a fall and doesn’t relax until he gets up, that’s not his fault, and no one notices. And if they do, they don’t say anything about it.

The tournament starts, following intramural rules stating that sets are to 15 points, but adding that eliminations are sudden death - meaning if they lose a set, they’re out. The pressure is on.

This time they beat ATZ easily, 15-7. They make it out of the second round after a more difficult game against SKS, 15-11. When they win their third-round match against PTG, 15-9, the entire team hugs.

They win their semi-final match against NTU, 15-12.

Sungyoon hadn’t dared to hope before. But now the trophy, the championship, is so close he can taste it.

*******************************************************************************

The ball arcs through the air and one of the setters in the back row hits it, passing to the right side player in front, who hits it over the net so hard it goes all the way back to Joochan.

He bumps it high, directing it towards Daeyeol.

Sungyoon knows what to do.

They’ve drilled this play over and over. He can do it.

Sungyoon watches the ball, waits for Daeyeol to set it, and as soon as it leaves Daeyeol’s hands and starts traveling towards him, he jumps.

He slams the ball over the net.

It flies towards the back row in a perfect spike.

The TBZ libero dives for it - and misses.

The ball hits the floor and the referee blows her whistle.

The team explodes.

Joochan reaches him first, slamming into him with all the force of a train, his grin huge and beautiful, and Sungyoon doesn’t even think before pulling him into a kiss.

Time stops.

Joochan’s lips are soft, his hands warm around Sungyoon’s arms, and he lets out a little gasp before he kisses Sungyoon back.

They break apart after a moment that could have lasted for eternity, and Sungyoon realizes.

“Was that okay?” he whispers. “I’m sorry for springing that on you, I didn’t even ask, fuck I messed this up already-”

Joochan presses his lips to his, freezing the words in his mouth. “Stop overthinking,” he says, and  _ oh, _ his voice is fond. “Yes, it was okay.”

They smile, lost in each other’s gazes, before Jangjun wolf-whistles.

“Thank  _ GOD, _ ” Youngtaek says, grinning at them and holding out his hands. “Cough up, losers.”

“You couldn’t have waited until  _ after _ the tournament?” Jibeom grumbles, slapping Youngtaek’s hand down. 

“Wait, you guys bet on us?” Joochan asks, his face flushing as he steps out of Sungyoon’s arms.

“Please, you two were so obvious,” Jaehyun says, mock-glaring at them. “You couldn’t have done this earlier, either?”

“Yah,” Sungyoon says, cuffing him upside the head, but not finding it in himself to really be mad because Joochan’s hand is in his, their fingers intertwined. “Don’t be rude to your hyung.”

“He’s not my hyung,” Jaehyun counters, pointing at Joochan.

Donghyun elbows him. “Shut up, Jaehyun,” he says, grinning. “Let them have their moment.”

“Yah, what about all of us?” Daeyeol asks, gently shoving Bomin and Jangjun aside so he can wrap an arm around Sungyoon. “We just won!!!”

“All thanks to Sungyoon’s textbook spike,” Joochan says, squeezing his hand and grinning.

Sungyoon grins back, and then the entire team dog-piles on him at Daeyeol’s urging.

Later, after they’ve received their trophy and taken their pictures, Sungyoon smiles to himself.

They won the tournament. 

But he feels like the biggest winner of the day, because Joochan’s hand is in his. Joochan is next to him, smiling at him, resting his head on his shoulder. Joochan is his, and he is Joochan’s. That feels like the best win of all.

**Author's Note:**

> i watched the breathe mv the day it dropped and screamed for five minutes straight about wajoo and this fic idea has lived in my brain ever since  
> and today i sat down and wrote it in one go.  
> big thank you to my lovely brioche for giving me volleyball pointers i love u  
> hope you all enjoyed!!  
> ♥
> 
> ps. go stream [breathe](https://youtu.be/5AI9c9CsxEI)
> 
> [tumblr](https://goddess-of-the-moon-and-stars.tumblr.com) || [twitter](https://twitter.com/allforexot9) || [cc](https://curiouscat.me/moon_goddess)


End file.
